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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

April 1 Blizzard No Longer A Joke ‘There’s No Excuse For This,’ Boston Mayor Says

Associated Press

The novelty of the April Fools’ Day blizzard wore off quickly Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of people waited for the lights to go back on and commuters bogged down on snow-covered streets.

A state of emergency remained in effect in Massachusetts and most schools and some universities were still closed after Boston’s third-biggest snowstorm on record.

Although major highways and main streets were largely free of snow and ice, secondary roads remained a mess and hundreds of city streets were still buried.

A 79-year-old Boston woman injured in a fall had to be carried three blocks to an ambulance because her street was buried under two feet of snow. Even the downtown financial district was hard to navigate.

“There’s no excuse for this,” said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. “We’re trying to figure out what’s wrong. We thought we had enough plows.”

National Guard troops were sent out to help clear fallen trees and utility poles.

Three deaths were blamed on the blizzard, all men who had heart attacks while shoveling snow in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New York police said one traffic death there may have been caused by the wintry weather.

Injuries included pedestrians hit by ice falling from high-rise buildings and people who lost fingers when they tried to clear clogs from their snowblowers.

Boston’s subways and commuter trains were still sluggish Wednesday because of everything from signal problems to fallen trees.

“This is a joke,” said Corey Stiver, a student at Boston University. “It took me almost an hour to get to school this morning.”

“They had all of last night to clean up the mess and the train is still running behind schedule,” Kerri Noonan fumed as she waited for a trolley.

Worcester, Massachusetts’ second-biggest city, spent more than $1 million in one day on snow cleanup and Gov. William F. Weld said he would try to get the city state aid. Wooster had its biggest snowfall in history, at 33 inches, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.

Boston had 24 inches, the third-biggest single snowfall in city history and more than it had ever totaled for the whole month of April. Other totals included 33 inches at Milford, Mass., 32 inches in upstate New York and 30 inches at High Point, N.J.

Some 75,000 business and residential customers, or an estimated 200,000 people, still had no electricity Wednesday in Massachusetts, along with more than 70,000 customers in New York and more than 20,000 in Connecticut.

The lack of power also meant many people couldn’t get water pumped from their private wells.

“I haven’t brushed my teeth in two days, and I’m a dental hygienist,” said Joy McLaughlin of rural Hamilton.

Then there was that New England stoicism.

Marietta Brewster kept her fireplace stoked in her home in Plymouth and heated Easter leftovers on a Sterno burner.

“We’re so spoiled,” said Brewster. “Everyone should have more survival skills.”